Social Media Marketing

Instagram Stories: 2 Months Later

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Instagram Stories launched on August 2. It’s funny, because I had to look that up, and it feels like it’s been around a lot longer than that… I feel like I’ve been using it forever.

But nope, turns out that was Snapchat.

It’s so interesting to me how social networks come and go in my life (does anyone remember Ello?). While I love social media, and am always excited about exploring new networks, the truth is, there are too many for me to be able to manage all of them.

In the olden days (7 years ago) when I wrote a blog, and Twitter and Facebook, it was manageable. These days, I write 3 blogs (plus guest posts for others), manage my own personal FB account plus a few business ones, Twitter, Instagram, G+, LinkedIn, aaaackkk!!!

And Snapchat. But something shifted for me when Instagram Stories was launched. I didn’t plan it. But I started using InstaStories more and more, and Snapchat less and less.

For me, the data supported it. I have more followers on Instagram than I do on Snapchat (I don’t actually know how many followers I have on Snapchat). And my views were higher on InstaStories than on Snapchat. Yeah, I miss the silly Snapchat filters, but InstaStories just kinda integrated itself right into my life.

Could I do both? Of course. And I have. But it feels inauthentic to me to repeat content on two different channels, and creating content for both is a lot of work. So I have found myself neglecting Snapchat and defaulting to InstaStories instead.

I’ve noticed that a few of my friends (Vicki and Adrian) both non-Snapchat users, naturally took to InstaStories right away, and I was curious as to how other people were with this new kid on the block, so I did a poll.

Here are the results:

The same amount of people are using Snapchat and InstaStories. If you do the math there, it turns out that more people, overall, are using (or planning to use) InstaStories than they are using Snapchat.

It could be an age thing.

Sixty percent is aged 13-24. Snapchat claims it reaches 41% of all 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States on any given day.

Instagram reaches a broader more mature section of the market. Forty-six percent of new Facebook profiles from 2012 to 2015 are from the ages of 45-54. While on the other hand, there has been a 25% decline during the same period for new Facebook profiles of people aged 13-17 in the US. —dlvr.it

So, turns out I’m not alone in my Snapchat slacking since InstaStories hit the air. What about you? I’d love to hear your thoughts on your Snapchat vs Instagram usage in the comments below.